WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.877 align:middle line:90% [CHEERING] 00:00:00.877 --> 00:00:01.377 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:00:01.377 --> 00:00:04.590 align:middle line:90% How are you? 00:00:04.590 --> 00:00:07.132 align:middle line:84% CA, would you like me to move the mic so you can stay seated? 00:00:07.132 --> 00:00:07.632 align:middle line:90% Oh, yeah. 00:00:07.632 --> 00:00:09.040 align:middle line:90% I was just going to adjust it. 00:00:09.040 --> 00:00:10.280 align:middle line:90% Yeah, I got you. 00:00:10.280 --> 00:00:16.540 align:middle line:90% 00:00:16.540 --> 00:00:20.404 align:middle line:84% That was an amazing introduction. 00:00:20.404 --> 00:00:21.550 align:middle line:90% Yeah, like that. 00:00:21.550 --> 00:00:23.320 align:middle line:90% That's how I like it. 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:24.592 align:middle line:90% And now-- 00:00:24.592 --> 00:00:26.560 align:middle line:90% That's the way to turn. 00:00:26.560 --> 00:00:27.960 align:middle line:90% Am I going the wrong way? 00:00:27.960 --> 00:00:29.270 align:middle line:90% I always go the wrong way. 00:00:29.270 --> 00:00:30.310 align:middle line:90% You did, yeah. 00:00:30.310 --> 00:00:30.810 align:middle line:90% There. 00:00:30.810 --> 00:00:33.400 align:middle line:90% 00:00:33.400 --> 00:00:34.550 align:middle line:90% No, it's all right. 00:00:34.550 --> 00:00:35.680 align:middle line:90% That's pretty good. 00:00:35.680 --> 00:00:37.190 align:middle line:90% Thank you, Dominic. 00:00:37.190 --> 00:00:38.186 align:middle line:90% No worries. 00:00:38.186 --> 00:00:45.160 align:middle line:90% 00:00:45.160 --> 00:00:47.890 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:00:47.890 --> 00:00:51.100 align:middle line:84% That introduction was the most beautiful introduction 00:00:51.100 --> 00:00:52.900 align:middle line:90% with the flowers and the-- 00:00:52.900 --> 00:00:56.140 align:middle line:90% 00:00:56.140 --> 00:00:58.250 align:middle line:84% thank you all for making this happen. 00:00:58.250 --> 00:01:02.710 align:middle line:84% Everybody at MoCA and the Poetry Center, I am-- 00:01:02.710 --> 00:01:04.390 align:middle line:90% hmm? 00:01:04.390 --> 00:01:05.985 align:middle line:90% We're getting a little feedback. 00:01:05.985 --> 00:01:07.610 align:middle line:84% I'm just going to turn it a little bit. 00:01:07.610 --> 00:01:08.152 align:middle line:90% There you go. 00:01:08.152 --> 00:01:10.620 align:middle line:90% Sorry. 00:01:10.620 --> 00:01:11.120 align:middle line:90% Sure. 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:20.650 align:middle line:90% 00:01:20.650 --> 00:01:21.410 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:01:21.410 --> 00:01:22.000 align:middle line:90% It's OK. 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:22.640 align:middle line:90% Perfect. 00:01:22.640 --> 00:01:23.270 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:01:23.270 --> 00:01:28.020 align:middle line:90% 00:01:28.020 --> 00:01:29.860 align:middle line:90% Can you all hear me just fine? 00:01:29.860 --> 00:01:32.440 align:middle line:90% Great. 00:01:32.440 --> 00:01:34.330 align:middle line:84% This has been an incredible journey. 00:01:34.330 --> 00:01:36.090 align:middle line:90% And something-- I just-- 00:01:36.090 --> 00:01:39.610 align:middle line:84% this book was supposed to arrive a week ago today, 00:01:39.610 --> 00:01:41.650 align:middle line:84% and we've been looking for it every day. 00:01:41.650 --> 00:01:43.950 align:middle line:84% And it just-- they just walked up here 00:01:43.950 --> 00:01:46.120 align:middle line:84% just before we started and delivered it. 00:01:46.120 --> 00:01:47.840 align:middle line:90% It was here in Tucson somewhere. 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:49.530 align:middle line:90% It just delivered to the wrong-- 00:01:49.530 --> 00:01:51.280 align:middle line:90% hi, everybody over there. 00:01:51.280 --> 00:01:55.350 align:middle line:90% And-- so I want to-- 00:01:55.350 --> 00:01:56.740 align:middle line:90% TC said it's an hour. 00:01:56.740 --> 00:01:58.290 align:middle line:90% It's really not. 00:01:58.290 --> 00:02:01.080 align:middle line:90% Thank you, TC, though. 00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:05.760 align:middle line:84% Do not-- well, I'm going to actually 00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:07.480 align:middle line:90% just begin with the reading. 00:02:07.480 --> 00:02:09.220 align:middle line:90% Thank you so much again. 00:02:09.220 --> 00:02:11.823 align:middle line:84% I'm going to read just one poem from-- 00:02:11.823 --> 00:02:13.240 align:middle line:84% let me just tell you a little bit. 00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:15.570 align:middle line:84% So this book, Amanda Paradise, this 00:02:15.570 --> 00:02:20.722 align:middle line:84% is a book that I wrote just before COVID lockdown. 00:02:20.722 --> 00:02:21.430 align:middle line:90% I was writing it. 00:02:21.430 --> 00:02:24.100 align:middle line:84% And I went into COVID a little bit. 00:02:24.100 --> 00:02:28.510 align:middle line:84% And this is working with extinct animal sounds, thinking 00:02:28.510 --> 00:02:35.460 align:middle line:84% of ecopoetics, as beyond the idea of degraded soil, air 00:02:35.460 --> 00:02:37.820 align:middle line:84% and water, including vibrational absence. 00:02:37.820 --> 00:02:39.650 align:middle line:84% And when a species leaves the planet, 00:02:39.650 --> 00:02:41.600 align:middle line:84% they take all their sounds with them. 00:02:41.600 --> 00:02:45.550 align:middle line:84% So I was very fortunate to get a grant from the Creative Capital 00:02:45.550 --> 00:02:49.340 align:middle line:90% people, Creative Capital people. 00:02:49.340 --> 00:02:51.980 align:middle line:84% And I don't know, that's what I call them. 00:02:51.980 --> 00:02:55.070 align:middle line:84% And I got to go to all 50 states. 00:02:55.070 --> 00:02:58.150 align:middle line:84% And I would lie on the ground and flood my body 00:02:58.150 --> 00:03:01.150 align:middle line:84% with the field recordings of animals that had become extinct 00:03:01.150 --> 00:03:02.770 align:middle line:90% in my lifetime. 00:03:02.770 --> 00:03:05.060 align:middle line:84% And then when soon as COVID started, 00:03:05.060 --> 00:03:09.640 align:middle line:84% I could not help but think about AIDS because I lost more than 00:03:09.640 --> 00:03:13.040 align:middle line:84% half of everybody I knew to AIDS in the '80s and '90s. 00:03:13.040 --> 00:03:16.040 align:middle line:84% And it spills over into this other book, 00:03:16.040 --> 00:03:17.720 align:middle line:90% but we'll get into that later. 00:03:17.720 --> 00:03:18.465 align:middle line:90% So the thing is-- 00:03:18.465 --> 00:03:23.210 align:middle line:90% 00:03:23.210 --> 00:03:25.220 align:middle line:84% it's just a joy to make, this book, 00:03:25.220 --> 00:03:26.610 align:middle line:90% with the extinct animal sounds. 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:30.080 align:middle line:84% And I feel guilty saying that, but because I thought 00:03:30.080 --> 00:03:31.320 align:middle line:90% I would be very depressing. 00:03:31.320 --> 00:03:33.590 align:middle line:84% But I loved hearing these creatures 00:03:33.590 --> 00:03:36.807 align:middle line:84% that were alive in my lifetime but are gone now. 00:03:36.807 --> 00:03:38.640 align:middle line:84% It's like a conversation with an old friend. 00:03:38.640 --> 00:03:41.070 align:middle line:84% I did other things with the ritual like I would-- 00:03:41.070 --> 00:03:43.992 align:middle line:90% 00:03:43.992 --> 00:03:45.950 align:middle line:84% I don't want to tell too much about what I did. 00:03:45.950 --> 00:03:46.760 align:middle line:90% It doesn't matter. 00:03:46.760 --> 00:03:50.500 align:middle line:84% But I would write little cards with the animals drawing, very 00:03:50.500 --> 00:03:54.200 align:middle line:84% badly drawn, and an email account for each an animal, 00:03:54.200 --> 00:03:56.867 align:middle line:84% and then leave them in Bibles and stuff, in hotel rooms. 00:03:56.867 --> 00:03:58.450 align:middle line:84% And then people would write back to me 00:03:58.450 --> 00:04:00.190 align:middle line:84% and we'd have these conversations 00:04:00.190 --> 00:04:02.560 align:middle line:84% where I would be the animal, eventually, 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:04.730 align:middle line:84% getting around to saying what year I became extinct. 00:04:04.730 --> 00:04:07.316 align:middle line:84% Thanks a lot, kind of thing, gets antagonistic. 00:04:07.316 --> 00:04:11.017 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:11.017 --> 00:04:13.330 align:middle line:90% 00:04:13.330 --> 00:04:16.480 align:middle line:84% But then-- so Amanda Paradise: Resurrect Extinct Vibration. 00:04:16.480 --> 00:04:18.260 align:middle line:84% By the time I was finished with this, 00:04:18.260 --> 00:04:20.560 align:middle line:84% I realized that I needed a new relationship 00:04:20.560 --> 00:04:26.690 align:middle line:84% with this world, this planet because living in this planet, 00:04:26.690 --> 00:04:28.950 align:middle line:90% to want to protect what's left. 00:04:28.950 --> 00:04:36.340 align:middle line:84% We've lost 70% of the wildlife on the planet in the past 50 00:04:36.340 --> 00:04:40.690 align:middle line:84% years, and that's quite a thing that we've accomplished. 00:04:40.690 --> 00:04:43.310 align:middle line:84% That's extraordinary that we did something like that. 00:04:43.310 --> 00:04:46.900 align:middle line:84% And considering how long we've all been here. 00:04:46.900 --> 00:04:48.610 align:middle line:84% But I knew I needed to work with animals 00:04:48.610 --> 00:04:49.970 align:middle line:90% thriving in the Anthropocene. 00:04:49.970 --> 00:04:51.888 align:middle line:90% And that's what the-- 00:04:51.888 --> 00:04:53.180 align:middle line:90% I'll get into that in a minute. 00:04:53.180 --> 00:04:55.130 align:middle line:90% So let me just read one poem. 00:04:55.130 --> 00:04:56.140 align:middle line:90% Is that feedback? 00:04:56.140 --> 00:04:57.320 align:middle line:90% It's not-- it's OK. 00:04:57.320 --> 00:04:59.180 align:middle line:90% It sounds all right, right?